Sfist has steered clear of Santa Cruz ever since we heard the fictional city of Santa Clarita was based on Santa Cruz. But this weekend, you're far more likely to say that something you never could stomach about Santa Cruz is all the damn martial artists, as The U.S. Open IX Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Tournament comes to town.

Jiu-Jitsu is not the most thriling spectator sport ever (in fact, we've been known to describe it as "boring"), as it's basically wrestling that gets nasty. Originally a Japanese art revolving around joint locks, it was modified by Carlos Gracie in the mid-1920s. The art gained greater prominence in the 1990s with the advent of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, a competition in which experts in different martial arts were pitted against one another with very few rules. Royce Gracie (a descendant of Carlos) was dominant in the early years of the UFC, bringing the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu message to the masses.

As with many martial arts, BJJ had swept the Bay Area in a big way. Four of the Gracies now live and teach here, as well as sponsor affiliate schools. Many local martial arts also schools offer BJJ classes. Sfist must admit a bias toward one school in particular, Ronin Ju-Jitsu. The instructor and founder, Nathan Snukst has been trained in jiu-jitsu for almost all of his life, and studied with the Gracies before founding his own school in 1999. We like Ronin because it eschews many of the typically masculinist attitudes of this style of martial arts, and also because we think all the folks there are a lot of fun.

Ronin is sending several students to this weekend's competition, including our frequent companion. Since our companion has forbidden us from attending the competition, and he's the one with the car, we encourage the rest of you to attend and cheer him and his classmates onto victory!